A collection of short stories all based around the idea of a machine that can tell you how you will die. The book contains 34 stories by 33 different writers, and 35 illustrations by 35 different artists. My story is about the accidental inventors of the machine, and is illustrated by Jesse Reklaw of Slow Wave, a great comic incorporating reader-submitted dreams.

1.Buy it on Amazon.com now. This is the best way to support the book, and the only place it’s currently available. It’s $17 in the US, or £11 plus £7 postage if you’re in the UK.

Sorry it’s a bit pricier than we’re used to in the UK – North America just generally charges more for books, and you could go for the cheapest postage option but it takes 18-32 business days. I’m not sure we have that many left on this Earth. You do get a lot of stories by cool people who aren’t me, though.

No progress yet on getting it into the UK Amazon or anywhere outside the US and Canada, so that won’t happen in the foreseeable future I’m afraid. That’s why we want to get a chart position on Amazon.com we can brag about.

If you know me in real life and live in Bath, let me know today if you want to buy a copy: it may make sense to order together this afternoon to save a little on postage.

2. From early November, I’ll be able to buy some copies wholesale and have them sent to people. This will not be significantly cheaper – about £15 with postage. But once that warehouse has them in, it’ll be quicker to send from there than from Amazon. Since that option is at least a week off, right now it’s not quicker to wait for this than to buy from Amazon, and it doesn’t support the project, so I don’t recommend it.

3. It will eventually be available as a free PDF. You won’t get the handsome physical object, but you will get to read the stories.

If you’d prefer one of the free methods but still want to support the project, you can still buy it on Amazon to support day-one sales, and have it shipped to Machine of Death headquarters to save on postage. Your copy will be donated to schools, libraries or showing the book off to people – equally worthy causes.

My story is still online for free. And here is the story HIV INFECTION FROM MACHINE OF DEATH NEEDLE, by Brian Quinlan, in its entirety:

“Well,” I thought, “that sucks.”

I have now bought the book

Woo! Thanks! I’m actually pretty optimistic about our day one sales. I don’t get any money from the book doing well, but all proceeds go towards promoting it further, and I’d love to see it be more widely available. If you do get it, let me know in the comments. I imagine we’ll get some idea of how well it sells in general, but I’d love to hear if any came from here. I also want to say “Thanks!” a lot.

I can’t wait to read it myself – I’ve only read my own story and the one above, so I’ll be using some (most) of my contributor’s fee to buy a copy today. Randall Munroe’s – called ? – is about “what happens when physical science rejects the idea of precognition”. I am excited about this.

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Tweets that mention Machine Of Death Is Out: Here’s How To Get It, by Tom Francis — Topsy.com: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tom Francis, Jaz McDougall. Jaz McDougall said: RT @Pentadact: Machine of Death, a short story collection about knowing how you'll die, is out. The first 4 stories: http://bit.ly/buyMoD [...]

idefex: What's the import duty situation when buying from the UK?

Octaeder: Ordered. With a quoted delivery time of anywhere up to December 15th I'm seeing this as a suprise Christmas present to my future self - as I'll have almost certainly have forgotten about it by then.

Jonas: Bought. And pimped to a few friends.

SenatorPalpatine: Canceled my order and bought it again for $8 cheaper. #1 already and it's not even 11am!

John: Bought it, the price seems to have been slashed at some point, so with cheap delivery it's really not very much now

SenatorPalpatine: (Nevermind, I misread, it's at #5 atm)

Athatar: Ordered! The book is now up to number 2!

Joseph: Yay for machine of death, boo to month long delivery :(

Joseph: Also boo to Keith Richard's autobiography. There is no justice in this world

Chris Evans: Bought it :D

Auspex: Bought it as a christmas present for my cousin but I'm going to claim the kindle version.

Also, the book has just gone to #1 on the amazon.com; I like to think it was my purchase that did it.

Well done!

Paul G: Bought, and an extra copy as a birthday present for my brother.

You, Randall Munroe and Yahtzee all in one place - how could I turn it down?

EthZee: Bah! Not only would I have to wait for this book, but the gift balance I had been saving for it on my UK account can't be transferred, so I'll have to pay extra for the thing. HNNG.

...Still! I'll buy it anyway, because I am foolish and I like this sort of thing.

Flying Squirrel: Wooo purchased! And a good excuse to order Mogworld and get free shipping on the whole shebang. Looking forward to it.

superslug: i read or listen to free stuff from more than half the contributors but only heard about this here. I will look forward to december 7 when my copy should arrive.

Coded One: Just bought it! Estimated shipping date is November 1st (there are SOME advantages to living in the States).

Also, as others have stated, it's at #1 on the bestseller list. Congratulations on the successful release! :)

Brey: Got a copy when I woke up today. Read the first 40 pages and confirmed I made a good choice.

Man, mail can't come soon enough. Especially since I always go for free shipping and therefore get things SO SLOWLY.